The invention is an arrangement for aligning a shaft assembly within an intake manifold housing and for reducing vibrations to the shaft assembly.
An intake manifold controls the amount of air entering an internal combustion engine. Air enters the intake manifold and flows through to the engine. Intake manifolds use shaft and blade assemblies to control the intake of air into the manifold assembly and through to the engine.
The shafts have commonly been manufactured from plastic and coated with rubber to lower vibration and noise. However, the plastic shafts have low durability and strength.
During manufacture imperfections may occur in the shaft, other assembly components, and the manifold housing due to manufacturing tolerances. The imperfections in the shaft assembly and manifold housing may lead to misalignment of the shaft when assembled into the intake manifold housing. The imperfections may be minimal while at rest. However, during operation of the vehicle misalignment of the shaft assembly may cause non-circular rotation of the shaft assembly. The non-circular rotation creates noise. In addition, imperfect fit between the shaft and manifold housing causes the shaft to vibrate against the manifold housing during engine operation. The vibrations also create chatter noise.
Because the shaft must be free to rotate within the manifold housing any components used for limiting vibration must be low friction to not hamper the shaft rotation.
An arrangement for shaft assemblies in intake manifolds to reduce vibration noise during engine operation is needed.